Farmers Warn High Demand For Workers Will Cost Consumers

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Local farmers say consumers should prepare to spend a little more at the grocery store due to a shortage of farm workers.

"There were certain times in the spring time where we couldn't plant our crops because we didn't have anyone," said Ray Yeung.

Yeung's family has owned a farm for the past 60 years, and this is the first year they've ever struggled to find all the workers they need.

"We can't make money. It's just going to cost more for the product," said Yeung.

With not enough farm workers available, he loses money.

"Would you want to wake up at 3 in the morning to come to work, and start work at 5 in the morning and work out in 100 degree temperatures? It's hard to find someone to do that," said Yeung.

That's where the biggest issue lies.

"We don't have enough since they closed the borders down. There's not enough people to come help work on the farm," said Yeung.

Jesus Nunez moved to America when he was 9 years old. Now 22, he says a lot of people ask him about his job as a farm worker.

"They say where I am working making so much money. I tell them and they don't really want to do it," he says.

Farm workers can make around $14 an hour. Some foremen can even make $60,000 to $100,000 a year.

The work is hard, and Nunez says people are scared to come to America because they don't know what to expect.

"They don't want to risk coming here and not knowing how to speak English, how it's going to be," he says.

Even with the jobless numbers showing millions are still out of work, it doesn't mean they want to work in agriculture.

"You can't force people to work," said Yeung.

Farm workers are in such high demand that some just stop coming to work when they find a farm that pays more.